Does anyone think polling of party leaders is important? December 9, 2016

While his detractors have been counting down the days to his departure it appears the general public are warming to the Fine Gael leader again.
The Irish Times/MRBI poll shows Kenny’s satisfaction rate is at its highest rating in four years.
He has jumped an incredible seven points since our last poll to 36 points. All that and an increase in the Government’s satisfaction rating.

I can’t really believe that that has much political weight – even for Kenny. But perhaps I’m wrong? What do others think?

And tied to that, does it have any political impact? Will this poll cement Kenny’s position in power in FG for a bit longer?

It probably depends on the polity in question; not that important in Ireland, where people are generally quite clued up on local political issues, know who their TDs are, and won’t necessarily be thinking about ‘who do I want to be taoiseach?’
Probably much more important here in England, where, like it or not (and I don’t), explaining/ defending Corbyn will be a big part of the conversations on the doorstep for the LP – absent all the things in the first paragraph.

Do you think that’s becoming more the case in the UK? To differing degrees, both polities seem to have a big media push toward personality politics – I expect at least partly due to influence from the USA. (When the LDs talked to Labour in 2010, the media wailing about a potential ‘coalition of the losers’ because Cameron had ‘won the election’ suggested a serious lack of understanding of the difference between parliamentary and presidential systems). Though perhaps FPTP means that that has always been a larger factor in UK politics than in Ireland anyway?

Definitely. Exacerbated by the other consequence of FPTP which the UK shares with its special friend: the election is effectively fought in about 20% of the seats, almost all in South and Central England.